Mountain Lions

[Shooterjr]

Has anyone ever seen a mountain lion in Tennessee? The reason I ask is I saw a trail cam close up of one two days ago-in Tenessee!

[Guest tnvolfan]

I had a good friend who worked as a guard at one of the remote locations between Y-12 and X-10, and he SWORE he saw a mountain lion one morning. I challenged him and told him he saw a bobcat, and he got mad, telling me that he darn well knew the difference, and that THIS was a mountain lion. He only saw this cat one time, and this was about 20 years ago. Hopefully, someone has seen them more recently than this!

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Yes.. at work one night .. Me and a friend I was working with both saw it. I mentioned it to another co-worker.. He said that that was the reason he had not see any of the deer the past couple of evenings..

Oh,.. yeah, this would be at the base of Frozen Head State Park

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Oh.. I almost forgot.. this happened just this past Dec.

[Guest coldblackwind]

I've seen a bobcat, and I've heard there are mountain lions, but haven't seen one, or know anyone who has. Doesn't mean they aren't there though.

[Wingshooter]

Has anyone ever seen a mountain lion in Tennessee? The reason I ask is I saw a trail cam close up of one two days ago-in Tenessee!

What part of TN?

I'm sure there are some here in TN. Now, it sounds like you have proof...

[jughead]

i personally know 3 people that have seen them in the last year. one of them lives within 3/4s of a mile of my house. i have looked for tracks or signs for the last 5 or 6 years and have seen nothing. the 3 people i know have no reason to lie and have been hunters off and on all their lives. one of the sightings was less than a mile from my house.

[Wingshooter]

Here's what perked my interest in the possibility of cats around here:

A few years ago, I found a paw print on some land I leased in Polk Co. that I thought looked too big for a bobcat. I went home and looked it up on the Internet, and it sure did look similar to a mt. lion's. I thought, yeah right...

I hunted the land for a couple of years without seeing any cats. One day I was talking to the neighboring farmer. I never once mentioned anything about the track or cats, and he told me that he saw a mt. lion creeping around his barn. I asked if it was a big bobcat. He said he knew the difference, and this one had a long tail and was about the size of his full-grown rottweiler. He said he knew what a bobcat and a mt. lion looked like. I don't know if he was credible, but he sounded convinced of it.

I would say that there are some in TN.

[Guest billwilly73]

My sister says she saw one in Scott County while at work. She got out of her car and saw it at the wood line. She leaned back in her car to get her camera and then it was gone. She said she didn't want to get eaten so she hurried in to work.

I believe her, but I have never seen one myself.

[jtluttrell]

Am I correct in thinking that a .45 would stop a mountain lion?

Assuming you are close enough to hit it in which case you'd better hit it.

Heading to Colorado this fall to do some camping.

[Guest Bluemax]

Has anyone ever seen a mountain lion in Tennessee? The reason I ask is I saw a trail cam close up of one two days ago-in Tenessee!

Any chance of posting some pictures ?? Not that I doubt your word but I've heard of several sightings of Mountain Lions as well as Black Panthers in the Smoky's in the last couple of years. One of which was my brother, who has a horse farm in the area.

He got up one morning around 5:30 AM to go feed and saw a large black animal lying at the end of his barn about a 100 yrds from his house. He watched it for a moment and at first thought it was a black bear as bear sightings are not thay uncommon but when it got up, he noticed it had a long tail which he said it kept flicking around. He went back in called me, got his rifle but when I got there 5 minutes later we could find no signs other than some faint tracks

I know it sounds weird but I know my brother well enough to know he wouldn't make this up

[Guest DaG]

It's funny this thread came up. I got an email today showing a pic from a trail cam in Catoosa. Big ass cat dragging what looks like an 8 pointer. Email says TWRA denies cats are in the area.

DaG

Edited August 26, 2009 by DaG

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Yep.. that looks just like the one I and my co-worker saw.

[nightrunner]

Am I correct in thinking that a .45 would stop a mountain lion?

Assuming you are close enough to hit it in which case you'd better hit it.

Heading to Colorado this fall to do some camping.

If you mean .45ACP, i doubt it. It might, but I wouldnt want that to be my only means of self-protection against one. Now if you are talking about .45Colt, that is more like it. Personally I would rather carry a .44mag just to be sure. After all, they are what I would consider "dangerous game"

[Superman]

I know people in the Monteagle/Tracy City area and they say they have seen them while hunting. I go off roading up there all the time and have yet to see one.

[Guest duckdog38]

i saw one in fayette county in fall of 1999. several local dogs came up missing. my father got pics of the footprints in his back yard, and gave them to a twra officer who never returned them. footprints were 4 1/4" wide and cat had almost 6' between sets of prints so we figured it was running when it came through the yard. they sound like a woman screaming if they make any noise.

[Shooterjr]

hmmm,

The trail cam picture posted above from Catoosa is the same one I saw, except the picture I saw was a different shot and it wasn't dragging a deer. I saw the picture from a co-worker's cell phone who claimed she was related to the owner of the trail cam. I do know the people involved live near Frozen Head and the Ozone area, and spend a lot of time in Catoosa. She told me they hear the "screams" from a lion quite often and it's pretty common knowledge around those parts that cats are in the area. I certainly can't confirm any of this, just what I have been told by whom I consider a trusty co-worker.

Sounds like a fishy deal if others are seeing similar pictures all of a sudden thoug.

On the other hand, another very trustable co-worker, whom I would never in my lifetime accuse of fabricating the truth swears they saw a black panther a few years ago on the back of their property. They live on the outskirts of Oliver Springs.

[TNTitan]

I spotted several Cougars at The Boundry in Nashville the other night...

[Guest Steve411]

Evidence of individual mountain lions in our southern Cumberland Plateau study

area include a mountain lion shot by a hunter in 1971 in Bledsoe County, Tennessee and

mountain lion tracks confirmed by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Wildlife

Officer in 1997 in Marion County, Tennessee (Simms 1997).

I remembered this from not long after I got out of high school over near where I live.

[Shooterjr]

Am I correct in thinking that a .45 would stop a mountain lion?

Assuming you are close enough to hit it in which case you'd better hit it.

Heading to Colorado this fall to do some camping.

I lived in Idaho for several years and helped manage a gun store. It was pretty well understood that basically any caliber from .38sp and larger would stop a cat, as they are very thin skinned. 9mm was a fairly popular choice for cat protection. We also sold some lightweight .38's to hikers for the same purpose.

Bears and wolves=different story.

[poak]

I spotted several Cougars at The Boundry in Nashville the other night...

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice

[jtluttrell]

I lived in Idaho for several years and helped manage a gun store. It was pretty well understood that basically any caliber from .38sp and larger would stop a cat, as they are very thin skinned. 9mm was a fairly popular choice for cat protection. We also sold some lightweight .38's to hikers for the same purpose.

Bears and wolves=different story.

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely be taking precations.

[Punisher84]

I saw one once. Sure my eye was infected and I'd been swimming in a pool with too much chlorine, and it was foggy, but I saw it!

In all seriousness I've heard several people swear they have seen panthers and mountain lions in the smokies and even in certain parts of MS. I don't really know why it's that hard to believe. It's not like they can't survive in this climate or something lol

[poak]

I've heard claims for years that a large cat was spotted between Bellevue and Kingston Springs here in Nashville. Breed tends to argued over, as well as origin (some say it's wild, some say it was an exotic pet that was released by it's owner).

I'm a facts man myself, so I tend to lean more toward urban legend on this one, but who knows

[Guest billwilly73]

I spotted several Cougars at The Boundry in Nashville the other night...

Pics or it didn't happen